Chương 217: A Good Laugh, A New One

I used my 'Voice Box Recorder' to play the sound of a cough as I stepped into the room, causing Gilepre to wake up with a startle. Sleeping whilst suspended and strung up like he currently is was far from a simple affair, but having been endlessly tormented for so long and prevented from getting any shut-eye by Gigi and Nessa, when he was left alone, he quickly fell into a deep slumber.

"Y-You… What more do you want from me…?"

"Do. You. Not. Get. It. Question Mark""I. Want. Everything. I. Can. Get""My. Greed. Is. Not. Yet. Satisfied""However. I. Also. Like. To. Play""Play? Are you going to continue torturing me?"

"Yes""Not. In. The. Same. Manner… I. Will. Show. You. A. Whole. New. World" My captive looked confused. He was probably thinking that I was talking about a new world of pain or something like that. I am very much serious and literal right, however. I approached him and grabbed his head.

"You. Act. Well. Gilepre… Did y–y–you thin–k–k I was a foo–fool?"

"What?"

"You ha–have kept a lot of infor–information to yourself, haven't you? I can t–tell. You aren't nearly–nearly as frightened as you sh–ould be. If your terror–ror was real, a seed of nightmare should h–have already blossomed within y–you""What the hell are you talking about?!" I tilted my head, lining up my eyes with his, as I twisted his neck enough for it to hurt.

"You are a g–g–good actor, Gilepre… But… Playtime's over" Judging by his reaction, he felt it. I cursed him with 'Remember Me?'. The poor fool had already been cursed. I had made sure to test my many curses on him, but this one was different, and he definitely noticed it right away.

'Remember Me?' was a powerful curse, and a very useful one. As I had stated, Gilepre had been trying to make a fool out of me, and frankly, if I didn't have a strong grasp of the negative emotions he was directing my way, I would have fallen for it every day of the week. This little bastard had really played the role of the helpless, beaten-down man like a champion. With the amount of knowledge I had, however, it was pretty damned obvious that he wasn't nearly as desperate as he tried to portray.

The motherfucker was still loyal to his lord, and he was still thinking about breaking free. He wasn't nearly as afraid of me as he pretended to be. He still had control of his emotions… And he hadn't yet been infested with nightmares despite everything that had happened. All of this was clear proof that he was messing around. In spite of all the torture, be it physical or psychological, he hadn't been broken for real. The intel he had given me was only the bare minimum.

He had guessed that I already had strong suspicions about who his lord was, so he just decided to spill it to pretend that he had given in. I honestly respect that to an extent, but obviously, it still means that he is not only going against me, but that he took me for a freaking idiot, which was simply unacceptable. By inflicting him with 'Remember Me?', I was dooming him to be infested with my nightmares and fall into an endless cycle–A rather nasty one at that.

After all, the only way to be freed from the nightmares for good and actually win this whole ordeal was to survive the final trial… And said final trial only came for those who failed the regular trials over and over again. Which means that if someone isn't aware of that, and does their best to win all the time, they'll never truly rid themselves of the nightmares… Perhaps something happens if someone truly wins all the time, but I have yet to see it happen.

Eventually, everyone tires and fails until reaching the end of the line. The regular trials are meant to weaken one's psyche, to make them fear failure, and thus, make them better producers of negative emotions for me… At least, this works when paired with 'Remember Me?' Without the curse, someone too far away wouldn't provide anything, and would just end up like Faelan–Whose soul I still had no flying clue about how to mend. Same with Anathema, actually.

I had a servant and a little sister in stock that I couldn't bring out into reality right now. Which is a shame… Especially for Anathema.

"W-What did you cast upon me, you wretched monstrosity?! What is this foul curse?! It… It isn't the same as before!"

"You w–were quick to drop the a–act""Fuck you!" I clapped my hands together, producing the clanking of steel instead of clapping, but the effect worked nonetheless. Xlown and Mari entered the room. My beautiful daughter already had her right hand shaped into the form of a large pair of shears, whilst Mari was pulling a little machine on wheels that she had created by following the instructions written inside the Dreamscape. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The caretaker was making a lot of progress as a mechanist, and she might just be able to actually show her worth by granting me free upgrades soon. For now, she could only manage the simpler, smaller designs, which was still impressive considering that she had only been introduced to mechanistry fairly recently.

"As a token of–of my displeasure… Do your thi–thing, girls" Gilepre struggled against the restraints like his life depended on it, but it was useless. Xlown placed the blades of her shears to flank both sides of his knee, stretching her other arm to grab his ankle and hold him in place while Mari got the machine on wheels working, revealing that it was nothing more than something that heated up a flat surface of steel. The captured agent's expression fell as he immediately understood what was going on. …

He still didn't beg for mercy. Now that his cover was blown, he couldn't pretend anymore. He could only endure by gritting his teeth.

"You know, Mister Agent… I think we all started off on the wrong foot. We should probably take a step back and evaluate where we are standing in life""Do you think you're funny?"

"It was a mistake for you to set foot inside that Purging Station""Kill me already""You made a mistake, but maybe–Just perhaps, you can get back on your feet, and take a step forward in life! Just throw yourself at my mother's feet, and you'll see that your lord isn't worth much, that he isn't willing to foot the bill for you!"

"Come on, no need to drag your heels! No need to have cold feet! I know it might sound like I have my foot in my mouth, but compared to everyone else, we have a leg up here!"

"Are you really not considering it? You already have one foot in the grave. Is it really worth going six feet under?"

"Just fucking do it and shut up already!"

"Oh… It upsets me a little that you're so aggressive when I am trying to lighten the mood… Ah well, in this case… Break a leg!" The shears shut down, slicing right through the captive's knee, he gasped in agony as blood flowed en masse, but he knew that it wasn't over yet. Xlown stepped back, leaving space for Mari to step in with her machine.

She grabbed what was left of Gilepre's leg and pressed the heated steel against the bleeding stump, roughly cauterising it, leaving the technical stuff to all the wonderful things he was already hooked onto, which made sure that he wouldn't get an infection or die from shock with continuous healing.

"Mommy, things aren't symmetrical, are they? We should shorten the leg that was already missing a foot to equalise everything!"

"Go–ood point, Xlown. Symmetry is im–impor–ant for a human body" I am uncertain whether my prisoner heard the conversation or if he was too focused on the pain to listen, but Xlown didn't delay with pleasantries this time, and chopped off the leg at the knee the moment I gave her approval to do so. The dull sound of a severed body hitting the ground rang out again, followed by that of sizzling flesh as this wound was quickly cauterised as well. It really was handy to have all that stuff to make sure he didn't die.

I am certain that closing wounds like this would usually result in gangrene. … I am no medical or healing expert, though. The severed limbs were devoured alongside the fallen blood, making it seem as though the captive had always been missing these portions of his body to begin with.

"Alright–right then, I'll see–see you later. Have fun–f–f–fun" The captive was left alone and in the dark, still reeling from the brutal removal of everything below his knees. Unknowingly to him, he was already under the effects of the gloom he emitted as a result of having been cursed. It was only a matter of time until he became a host of nightmares. In the meantime, Leou had something to tell me in her office…

"I–Or rather, the organisation has an assassination mission for you. I am not going to lie, you aren't the first person to be given this mission. The previous assassins all failed and died. Which is bad because it means the target isn't an easy one, and also because we paid those guys some advance, and they miserably failed""I am telling you this, since you are totally allowed to refuse such a mission…

But anyway, the target of assassination is this man" The snow leopard brought a picture of what was very obviously a demon. He had the most recognisable features of the demon species. Red skin, horns, a rough facial structure that made him look very manly… And he was bald. I am fairly certain that most demons have hair, but for some reason, we humans seem to be under the impression that most of them are bald. I have no idea why.

In any case, this guy looked like he ate warriors for breakfast, his eyes were small and somewhat caved into his face, making them hard to see or target, his mouth was wide, and apparently featured some sharp fangs befitting of a carnivorous predator. His horns were long and thick, sprouting from the sides of his head, moving backwards before curving around to the front, essentially giving him natural defences for his skull as those things looked like they could easily handle a lot of force.

"This is Baron Hyotrask Devilblood–He used to be a knight until just a few years ago, but received a nobility title for his successful culling of a monster horde, and his exemplary management during the Nightmare Plague""So he on–only received a family–ly name when he was pro–promoted? W-Why Devilblood? I thought de–demons did not like being com–compared to devils?" There was some confusion, at least in the past, where people did not know the actual difference between a demon and a devil.

The difference was simple: Devils were beings who were born and lived in their own realm, often called 'Hell', while demons were a sapient species that lived in the same plane as humans, elves, and beastfolks. There were some theories that demons originally hailed from devils who had crossed over, but as far as I was aware, they didn't hold much water. The only reason was because demons and devils could sometimes look alike, but the same reasoning could be applied to some beastfolks, so…

Naturally, the comparison wasn't kindly received by the demons, so it was odd that someone who did so well would be given a name hinting at such a heritage.

"Oh, well, calling a demon a devil is indeed an insult, but devils are also very strong, and in recent times, since the comparison between demon and devil has died down, things have changed and being called a devil is more so a remark on someone's strength. I think humans have used words similarly for longer" I nodded my head. It made sense. I guess language had also changed when I was busy rotting.

"Anyway, Hyotrask Devilblood's territory is right above an underground blood ocean, and he has been constantly denying any of our attempts to reach it. We not only want to get him out of the way, but we also worry that he might be a threat if he manages to figure out that we are the ones sending people into his territory""Mmh… Al–Alright, tell me the information, and I'll te–tell you if I can do som–something"